Small portable hand tools are used for many various applications. Pocket knives, box cutters, and screw drivers are a few examples of such tools. Tools of this type can be used to perform a multitude of tasks.
The sport of golf has become extremely popular over the past several years. As the sport has grown in popularity, golf equipment has advanced as well in an effort to allow the players to achieve the best result for their individual ability level.
Golf clubs are designed such that the face that strikes the golf ball is angled. The angled face of the club causes the ball to be lifted upon impact. A set of golf clubs has clubs with various angles applied to the club faces. A club is selected with a particular angled face according to the trajectory desired (i.e., amount of loft) for a particular golf shot. Golf clubs are numbered, with the lower numbered clubs having a smaller angle (i.e., the club face is angled less relative to the club shaft), with the angle of the club face increasing as the club number increases.
When an angled golf club face contacts a golf ball, it is important that the ball does not slip or skid across the club face. To prevent this from happening, the face of the club head has a series of cuts or grooves on it that typically extend across the club face horizontally. These grooves grip the ball upon impact and impart a rotation to ball. The grooves on the club face help a golfer to control the spin or rotation of the ball and to control the trajectory or loft of the shot, which is critical to accurate placement of a golf shot.
Golfers often play under many conditions that tend to cause the club heads to become soiled, such as wet surfaces, sand, tall grass, dirt, and mud. This can cause a build-up of dirt, grass, or debris on the face of the golf club. This can impair the performance of the club by filling the grooves in the club face, which minimizes or eliminates their ability to function as designed. In addition, as golf clubs become older, constant use begins to cause a wearing away of the grooves. This results from repeated impact with golf balls that over time cause the grooves to become less pronounced.
The degradation of the grooves in the club face either by contamination or wear causes a reduction in the effectiveness of the club to impart the desired rotation on the golf ball, which results in the golfer having less control over the shot. Accordingly, there is a need for a device that can clean and recondition the golf club.
Apparatuses for cleaning golf club heads currently exist. These usually entail the use of wire brushes, water, and large containers. Portable club cleaners have been used, but these devices are still larger than desired and often cause damage to the golf bag they are carried in because they contain sharp edges or areas that can catch or tear on the golf bag material, or the pocket of the golfer carrying the device.
What is desired is a portable tool that can be used to clean or recondition the face of a golf club head and which folds into a compact, smooth configuration when not in use. It is also desirable to provide a hand tool having a novel means of folding. The present invention fulfills this need among others.